The last days of Summer

It is the last days of summer for the 2017 anime summer releases and we look at a few beach episodes, take a look at what is happening in anime this season, share some anime news of the month of August and also look at a few spooky stuff.

To some, summer is the perfect season for the Beach experience. In anime, it is the case as well and episodes are often filled with fan service, but some are quite the opposite such as the Episode 13 of the AnimeWelcome to the NHKwhere a group of people meet up at the beach to commit suicide. In anime’s answer to the Final Destination movie series, Another(Episode 8) is filled with blood in the water. Yes, dark beach episodes also happen in anime and can be great episodes for a Halloween-at-the-beach-themed anime watch party.

On a lighter side in the hilarious anime Gintama (Episode 115) we see a battle between a battleship and something that looks like a chimaera and it is hilarious. In the mood for more beach episodes? Here are a few honourable mentions that are not dark and more fun. School Rumble (Episode 12), Toradora(Episode 9 & 10) and Assassination Classroom (Episode 17-23 a whole beach arc!).

Isekai Shokudou

Editor’s pick of Summer anime episodes

Isekai Shokudou Episode 6 features Aletta, the half-demon waitress in a typical Satur Day work day setting.Between dealing with arguing restaurant patrons and a cooking lesson from the Master she has a lot on her plate. It is nice to catch up with her since most episodes since episode 1 introduced us to all the regulars that visit the restaurant on Saturdays.

In Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou episode 6 and 7 Inaba-kun finds a magical book about Tarot Cards (Or is it a dream) and finds out that with the book he can summon 22 useful (or is it useless) spirits to aid him. It is also great to see him back at the Yokai Apartments where he is his happiest.

Pokémon Sun And Moon

Monthly News

Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan

It is a pity that we all have to wait for Attack on Titan season 3 until next year, but the anime is not going to let us wait until next year, there is going to be a little 3-part OVA to help us cope with our Titan withdrawal syndrome. These OVA will be titled Attack on Titan: Lost Girls based on a manga published way back in August 2015. The 25-minute-episode-OVAs will be released with upcoming volumes of the original manga.

Attack on Titan: Lost Girls is three stories. The first, “Wall Sheena, Goodbye” featured Annie, getting separated from a search mission and uncovering a criminal ring that could compromise her secret mission to find the Coordinate for Paradis. The second story, “Lost in The Cruel World” focuses Mikasa and takes place in an alternate universe where the Titans never existed. In this universe, she grew up with her parents by her side, but still, end up meeting Eren. It follows the start of their friendship. The third story is titled “Lost Girls” and features Mikasa and Annie in a brief encounter during their training days, chatting about their reasons for joining the military etcetera.

Dies Irae

Dies Irae

Dies Irae features an alternate history of World War II. Berlin, May 1st, 1945, the Red Army of Russia raises the Soviet flag over the Reichskanzlei. A group of Nazi officials performs an occult ritual, the burning city of Berlin, and the perfect sacrifice to summon the Order of the 13 Lances, a group of supermen capable to bring the world to destruction. Did they succeed, for years no-one knew if they did and those who knew passed away…

Present day, It is December in Suwahara City. For two months, Ren Fujii spent his days in hospital since fighting with his friend Shirou Yusa where they almost succeeded to kill each other. Every night he is plagued by the same dream: murderer hunting people and black knights hunting the murderers. He want’s to return to a normal life but his friend Shirou’s words keep echoing in his mind: “Everyone who remains in this city eventually loses their minds.”

Dies Irae will premiere on October 6th. The anime’s main staff includes Susumu Kudou (Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club) in the director’s seat and Takashi Masada on series composition, The anime’s opening song “Kadenz” is performed by Yui Sakakibara, who has is also the voice of the anime’s main heroine, Marie.

Inuyashiki

In the mood for some dark science fiction anime? Well in October a new anime will be part of the fall anime releases that may interest you. Inuyashikitells the tale of a middle-aged man that accidentally becomes a cyborg superhero (played by Fumiyo Kohinata) who will face a psychopathic teenager villain (played by Nijirô Murakami). The anime’s opening song will be performed by MAN ON A MISSION, the same band that did the super sugoi theme song Database for the anime Log Horizon.

The Inuyashiki manga ran from 2014 – 2017 in Kodansha’s Evening seinen manga magazine. Keiichi Sato (Rage of Bahamut Genesis) and Shuhei Yabuta (Highschool of the Dead) at anime house MAPPA direct the anime. The anime’s series composition is handled by Hiroshi Seko (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), while the character designer is Naoyuki Onda (GANTZ) The anime will premiere on October 12th

Pokémon Sun And Moon

Pokémon Sun And Moon

Every hardcore Pokémon fanatik knows the names, Brock and Misty. Both, Misty and Brock, used to be Gym Leaders that went on a journey with Ash. We all remember how Ash’s Pikachu fried Misty’s bike in the very first season of the Pokémon anime and that she initially followed Ash to make sure he replaces her bike, and we all remember Brock’s weakness for the ladies and his ninja cooking skills. We remember Brock and his Zubat, and Misty and her Staryu fighting alongside Ash and his Pokémon every time Team Rocket tried to steal Pikachu. We have not seen Misty and Brock since the Best Wishes Pokémon movie. When it was announced that a movie remake of the first part of the Pokémon anime series is going released which will exclude Brock and Misty, many hardcore Pokémon anime fans voiced that to exclude the two characters from the movie is just wrong.

In the Pokémon Sun And Moon anime series that wrong is about to be right. Ash Ketchum and Brock and Misty will be reunited in a two-parter episode arc that sends him back to his home in the Kanto region. Misty will have a Mega Gyarados and Brock a Mega Steelix! In Pokémon Sun And Moon Ash has been living in the Alola region making new friends but never forgot his first travel companions he journeyed with in the Kanto region. The reunion is bound to make for a super sugoi episode. Look out for these episodes on the 14th and 21st of September!

Two Car

Two Car

We have seen some interesting sports anime ranging from Tennis (Prince of Tennis) to Figure Ice Skating (Yuri!!! on Ice) to Wrestling (Tiger Mask W). Sports anime enthusiasts can sometimes get fanatikal over their anime like rugby fans over the Springboks. With the tenth anniversary of the anime house SILVER LINK (Isekai Shokudou), they are releasing an anime set in the world of competitive motorcycle sidecar racing called Two Car.

The anime, Two Car is set to premiere on October 7th and the cast includes Aoi Koga and Aimi Tanaka. It tells the tale of two girls who enter the competitive world of motorcycle sidecar racing. Girlish, slender Yuki is the driver that controls the accelerator and brake, the daughter of a family that runs a guesthouse and the boyish and impulsive Megumi uses her acrobatic skills and body weight to handle the corner work. Her family runs an inn. Our two heroines will battle it out on the racing tracks with other motorcycle sidecar teams from all over Japan.

The staff include Masafumi Tamura (Ange Vierge) who is directing the anime, Katsuhiko Takayama (Aldnoah.Zero) is supervising and writing the series scripts. Tiv (Masamune-kun’) does the original character design, and Toshiki Kameyama (KanColle,) is the sound director.

Mob Psycho 100

Interesting tidbits from the realms of Anime

Spread the Word

The Japanese are a very polite culture, prefer not to use the word no, and believe in delivering bad news in a more indirect way. This they say no either with body language or indirect language. In some cases, they might say no (‘iie‘ in Japanese) directly.

Ways of saying no in Japanese:

iie or uun – which means ‘no’ directly

Kekko desu – which means ‘I’m Satisfied’. We might say ‘no thank you’ when we are offered food after a meal but a Japanese person might just say: ‘Kekko desu’ politely instead.

Sumimasen, chotto… – which means ‘excuse me, it is a little… Let’s say you are hanging a portrait and you ask a Japanese person if it is hanging straight. He or she might politely say: ‘Sumimasen, chotto…’ to indicate that the portrait is not hanging right.

Chigau – Which can mean ‘wrong, not quite or not exactly’. Let say you are a little late for a meeting and you ask ‘Am I late?’ the answer might be ‘Chigau‘ or if you are wrong in guessing something it might be the same answer. ‘Chigaimasu‘ is a formal way to say ‘Chigau‘

Iya – means ‘no, disagreeable’ and is a way to say you disagree

dame – means ‘that’s not allowed or no way) Dame is sometimes said very strong and sometimes followed by the person crossing their arms in front of their faces. Very powerful way to say: ‘it is not allowed!’

Traditional Japanese Recipe

Tokoroten

Tokoroten is a firm clear noodle that is made from seaweed and is served cool in the summer season. It is usually topped with ingredients like nori, hot pepper, vinegar, sesame and soy sauce. Even though it is mostly not a sweet dish it is to some, considered as a dessert, like in the Kansai region where they eat it with Kuromitsu. It has a firmer texture than noodles made from grain. Boiling seaweeds such as tengusa (Gelidium amansii) and ogonori as used in creating this cool dish, and when it congealed the resulting jelly is then pressed into a mould.

The Japanese have eaten the dish for about a thousand years and it is said that the Chinese introduced it to Japan during the Nara period. It was a popular summer snack in the Edo period and was made to eat immediately and commonly sold around factories. In the 17th century, another discovery about tokoroten was made, if you freeze it would become a stable and dry product known as kanten (agar). It is a low-calorie, carb-free, and gluten-free food source that is also high in fibre, which proves how popular Tokoroten is because it makes for a healthy alternative to noodles or pasta.

Kuroyukihime

Birthday of the month

Accel World tells the tale of Haruyuki Arita, an overweight middle scholar who is often bullied about his weight. He finds sanctuary in playing online games and he is the best there, it is the place where he truly shines. One day he discovers that Kuroyukihime has topped all his high scores, who just happens to be the vice-president of the student council and the most beautiful girl in the school. He is invited by her to the student council and she introduces him to the game ‘Brain Burst’ (It allows gamers to accelerate their brain waves to a point where time seems to stop. It functions as an augmented reality game, and to help yourself to accelerate more you must win duels against other players to get more points. The catch: if you lose all your points you lose access to Brain Burst forever.)

Kuroyukihime (Her name loosely translated as Princess Snow Black) is one of Accel World’s lead main characters. Her birthday is on the 30th of September and she is our birthday girl of the month! She was known as the Black King after defeating the former ‘Red King’ and is the current leader of the Black Legion, Nega Nebulus. She aims to reach level ten and meet the creator of the Game Burst game. To reach that goal she has to defeat five level nine players, ‘The Six Kings of Pure Color’. They just are the leaders of the six most powerful factions in the Brain Burst world.

Other notable birthdays this month includes Gin Ichimaru from Bleach on the 10th, Shikamaru Nara from the Naruto anime franchise on the 22nd, and Oolong from the Dragon Ball Franchise who celebrates his birthday on the 23rd of September.

Supernatural

AMV of The Month

First, there was the hit TV series Supernatural starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester back in 2005. It told us the tales of two brothers trying to keep the innocent save from Ghosts, demons and all things that go bump in the night. Then in 2010 Supernatural: The Anime Series hit the anime scene. The anime ended off every episode with ‘Carry On my Wayward Son’ by Kansas as the theme song. It was a 22 episodic anime, which dealt with themes from the first two seasons of the original American TV series. In the English dubbed version of the anime, Jared Padalecki voiced Sam, while Jensen Ackles voices Dean only in the last two episodes for scheduling reasons; Andrew Farrar voices Dean in English for the first 20 episodes. Our AMV is from the Supernatural: The Anime Series and it is the song Heathens by Twenty One Pilots.

Twenty One Pilots is a musical duo hailing from Columbus, Ohio in the USA. The band formed in 2009 and consisted of lead vocalist Tyler Joseph, Nick Tomas and Chris Salih. Some of the band members’ left and the band currently consist of Joseph and drummer Josh Dun. The band achieved breakthrough success with their fourth album ‘Blurryface in 2015. Here is our AMV of the month Twenty One Pilots’ Heathens.

Another

September Anime Challenge

It is time for another anime challenge and for the month of September we will be looking at the mystery horror anime, Another. Join us as we explore the mysteries of Yomiyama North Middle School’s class 3-3 with transfer student Kōichi Sakakibara, where everybody ignores the pretty Mei Misaki like the plague! Experience the strange phenomena that occur as students and their relatives starts dying off in sometimes strange and gruesome ways, and the mysteries that unfold since an event that happened in 1972. Will Kōichi and Mei figure out how to stop it before it kills any more of their classmates or them? Be sure to look on our FB page as the challenge is updated every week.

Hell Girl

Anime Day!

There is going to be an Anime Day event this month and the theme is ‘Get your Creep on!’. The anime day will show case supernatural anime and will take place on the 16th of September 2017 and will run from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Cool Runnings, Centurion. Anime series such as Ghost Stories, Charlotte and Hell Girl will be screened as well as movies such as Ajin and Shisha no Teikoku (The Empire of Corpses). Be sure to visit the meetup group or our FB Event Page for more detail.